Zoe, Kunming 

Have you ever used the words accident or accidentally? Have you come across the words incident or incidentally?

A bit confused? Well this programme aims to answer a question from Zoe and explain the meaning and some basic uses of the words accident and accidentally and incident and incidentally.

They may look and sound similar but they have very different meanings. Can you tell what the difference is in these sentences?

I can see why they are tightening the rules for driving as there are so many traffic accidents nowadays.

Nobody was hurt in the bus accident.

An error in the translation nearly caused a diplomatic incident.

Listen to the programme to find out. You will also hear lots more examples and Chinese explanations from Kate and Yang Li.

杨莉和 Kate Colin 将通过大量例句来讲解 accident 和 incident 的基本用法以及相关常用短语。

If you have a question you would like to ask our team, email us at questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. We might produce a programme about your question.

Accident and Incident:  两词区别 

Yang Li:  Hello and welcome to Question and Answer of the Week. 我是杨莉，大家好。 

Kate:  Hello, I'm Kate. 

Yang Li:  我们今天要回答的问题来自昆明的Zoe. 我请菲菲来读一下她在电子邮件中提出的问题 

“看书时发现 incident与 accident 意思差不多，但究竟它们在用法上有什么区别呢，两个可以互换吗？” ---Zoe, Kunming 

Yang Li:  Zoe wrote that she found the words accident and incident similar in meaning and would like to know what the differences are. Can you help 

Kate?  

Kate:  Sure, I can help with that. Well, obviously there are lots of different uses for these words but I want to focus on the basic meanings for each and their differences. I'll give lots of examples too of course! 

Yang Li:  Good. 我们将集中介绍这两个词的基本用法和区别，附带很多例句。 

Kate:  Let’s start with the word accident. It is used to mean an unpleasant event that happens unintentionally and causes damage. The word can apply to an object or a person. A person involved in an accident could be injured or even die. 

Yang Li:  首先这是一个名词，它的意思意外的事故，故障， 不幸甚至伤亡。可以指人，也可以指物。 

Kate:    We often hear stories relating to car accidents or traffic accidents. 

Yang Li:  Car accidents 汽车事故，traffic accidents交通事故。请听例句。 

Insert 

I can see why they are tightening the rules for driving as there are so many traffic accidents nowadays. 

Kate:  It can be something major or minor. 

Page 2 of 3 

Yang Li:  既可指大事故，也可以指小事故。比如一个人把手给划破了。 

Insert 

--What happened to your finger? 

--Well, I had a slight accident at home and broke a glass. When I tried to pick up the pieces I cut my finger, but it's not serious. 

Kate:  Here you could say that this man cut his finger accidentally, meaning by mistake. In this sense accidentally means something bad or undesirable.  

Yang Li:  Accidentally 是副词，不幸地。 

Kate:  However the word accident can also refer to an unplanned event that is a good and positive thing. 

Yang Li:  Accident 还可以指意外的好事, 比如下面的对话者说一个人的获奖完全是因为他前面的两名都在最后一刻退出了比赛。 

Insert 

--He was over the moon at winning the speech competition, wasn’t he? 

--Yes, it was a bit of an accident because the other competitors both pulled out at the last minute! 

Kate:  Here is a common phrase to learn: by accident, which means by chance. 

Yang Li:  意思是碰巧了，偶然。 

Kate:  A lot of our users told us that they found the bbcukchina.com website by accident! 

Yang Li:  And of course, they lived happily ever after! 

Sting 

Yang Li:   前面我们讲了accident 这个词的用法，下面我们举例讲解incident. 

Kate:  The word incident simply refers to something that happened – an occurrence either big or small, which was not necessarily good or bad.  

Yang Li:  Incident 是个名词，最基本的意思是发生的事情或事件occurrence 不一定好，也不一定坏。既可以是小事，也可以是重大事件。 

Kate:  For example: 2010 World Cup passed without incident. 

Yang Li:  这一句话的意思是世界杯平平安安地结束了，含义是既没有出大事也没出小事。 

Kate:  It can also refer to an occurrence or event that interrupts normal procedure or precipitates a crisis. For example, we might talk about 'an international incident'.  

Page 3 of 3 

Yang Li:  Incident 也可以指扰乱正常社会秩序的事件或有可能引发危机的事件。比如国际事件，请听例句： 

Kate:    An error in the translation nearly caused a diplomatic incident 

Yang Li:     That’s a very good example 翻译上的一个错误差点引发一场外交事件。 

Kate:    It’s not easy to be a good translator! 

Yang Li:  No, not at all. Let’s look at the third use of the word incident. 

Kate:  Well we use the adjective and adverb form of the word incident a lot. They are incidental and incidentally. 

Yang Li:  大家一定要熟悉这两个词，形容词是incidental，副词是accidentally.  

Kate:  For example, someone was giving a speech about the environment but towards the end he made an incidental remark about a museum he visited in London. 

Yang Li:  Incidental remark. 附带的提到了他参观的博物馆。 

Kate:  Now we’ve talked about the expression by accident but it should be noted that we can’t say by incident. We do however often say incidentally. Oh, incidentally Li, did you know that there is a really good exhibition on at the British Museum at the moment? 

Yang Li:  Aren’t you smart Kate? You’ve just used the word incidentally in a very natural way. Incidentally 就是顺便说一句。  

Kate:  And incidentally, my sister is also called Zoe! 

Yang Li:  Is that so? OK Zoe, I mean Zoe from China, I hope that we have helped you with your question and you’re no longer confused between the words accident and incident.   

Kate:  And remember, if you have a question do drop us an email to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk 

Yang Li:  Thanks for listening and see you next time. 

Both:   Bye